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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



MAKING A 

GARDEN OF 

PERENNIALS 



THE 

HOUSE & GARDEN 

MAKING 

BOOKS 

IT is the intention of the publishers to make 
this series of little volumes, of which Making 
a Garden of Perennials is one, a complete library 
of authoritative and well illustrated handbooks 
dealing with the activities of the home-maker 
and amateur gardener. Text, pictures and 
diagrams will, in each respective book, aim to 
make perfectly clear the possibility of having, 
and the means of having, some of the more 
important features of a modern country or 
suburban home. Among the titles already 
issued or planned for early publication are the 
following: Making a Rose Garden; Making a 
Lawn; Making a Tennis Court; Making a Fire- 
place; Making Paths and Driveways; Making 
a Bock Garden; Making a Garden with Hothed 
and Coldframe; Making Built-in Bookcases, 
Shelves and Seats; Making a Garden to Bloom 
TJiis Tear; Making a Water Garden; Making 
a Poultry House; Making the Grounds Attractive 
with Shrubbery ; Making a Naturalized Bulb 
Garden; with others to be announced later. 



Making a Garden 
of Perennials 

By W. C. EGAN 




NEW YORK 

McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY 

1912 



Copyright, 1912, by 
McBRIDE, NAST & CO. 






61>V 



Published June, 1912 



vgCI.A319000 



CONTENTS 





PAGE 


Inteoduction 


1 


^. 




Peepaeing the Beds . 


. '^ 


^ 




WiNTEE Mulching 


. 20 



SuMMEE Mulching . . . .23 

Plant Combinations . . . .30 

Weeding 34 

Lists of Dependable Peeennials: 

Of Geneeal Excellence . . 36 

Foe Shady Positions . . .49 

Foe Dry Soils . . . .50 

For Wet Soils . . . .51 

Alpines, or Rock Plants . .51 



THE ILLUSTRATIONS 



A Garden of Perennials . Frontispiece 



FACING 
PAGE / 

A Colony op German Iris . . 4 



Sweet Rocket Against a Foliage 
Background 12* 



/ 

Peonies 24 



Canterbury Bells and Foxglove . 30 



Anemone Japonic a . . . .38 



Phlox Panic ulata . . . .46 



Swamp Mallow, Gaillardia and 

V 

Campanula Peesicifolia . . 50 



MAKING A 

GARDEN OF 

PERENNIALS 



INTRODUCTION 

THE successful garden has a permanent 
basis. There must be some flowers 
that appear year after year, whose posi- 
tion is fixed and whose appearance can be 
counted on. The group classed as peren- 
nials occupies this position and about flow- 
ers of this class is arranged all the various 
array of annuals and bulbs. These last act 
as reinforcements in rounding out the gar- 
den scheme. 

Perennials are plants that live on year 
after year if the conditions surrounding 
them are congenial. 

Trees and shrubs are perennials, of 
course; in these the stems are woody, but 
we are considering only those known as 
herbaceous perennials, having stems of a 
more or less soft texture that, with the 
exception of a few evergreen species, die 



2 Introduction 

back each fall, new ones appearing the fol- 
lowing spring. 

Quite a number of them are too tender 
to be generally grown as hardy perennials, 
but those that bloom freely the first year 
— like the snapdragon — are treated as an- 
nuals, discarding them when the season is 
ended. 

Some biennials — those that do not bloom 
until the second year, and then die — ^may 
be placed among the perennials and con- 
sidered of their class, because they seed 
so freely at the base of the parent plant 
and bloom the following year, that their 
presence in the border is nearly always 
assured. The only thing necessary to do 
is to transplant those not in the situation 
you desire them to bloom in. RudhecMa 
triloba, one of the Black-eyed Susan type, 
is not only a good example of this class, 
but a charming plant that all should grow, 
and, moreover, it is a very accommodating 
one, doing splendidly in semi-shady places, 
such as north of buildings or under weep- 



Introduction 3 

ing trees like the rose-flowered Japanese 
weeping cherry. It is at home in full sun- 
shine where it will form a broadly rounded, 
bushy plant about three feet in diameter 
and, when in full bloom, with its myriad 
of black-eyed flowers, it can dispel the 
worst case of melancholia a dyspeptic ever 
enjoyed. It requires a good open, rather 
light soil to do itself justice. If lifted 
when in full bloom, put into a ten-inch 
pot, well soaked at the roots, and set 
aside for a few hours away from sun and 
wind, it will last for two weeks as a porch 
or house plant. 

We hear a good deal about the gardens 
of our grandmothers, perennial gardens, 
in which the plants outlived the flagstones 
at the house door. 

With a few exceptions, perennials are 
not long-lived. The gas plant, peonies, 
some of the iris, day lilies, and a few others, 
seem permanent. 

The usual run require to be taken up 
about every two or three years and divided. 



4 Introduction 

There are two reasons for this. In the 
first place, the roots have exhausted all the 
food within reach and, again, the main 
crown, from which spring the blooming 
shoots, dies from exhaustion. At the outer 
edge of this decay is generally a fringe 
of " live matter " which, if taken up, sep- 
arate from the decayed center, divided, and 
reset in good soil, will rejuvenate itself, 
and soon form a new plant. 

In unfavorable sections the Texas gail- 
lardia will lose its crown during winter, 
and the anxious novice watches impatiently 
in the spring for its reappearance, and 
finally digs it up only to find that while the 
crown is decayed the roots are alive, and 
here and there, on these, new plant buds 
are forming which, if not disturbed, would 
soon make good plants, probably not 
placed, however, just where wanted. Nurs- 
erymen often avail themselves of this pe- 
culiarity and increase their stock by tak- 
ing up a plant, cutting the roots into small 
sections, and growing them separately. 




The German iris is one of the most beautiful 
forms in the flower world and it will flourish 
in practically any moderately good soil 



Introduction 5 

We must remember that nine-tenths of 
the plants we grow are exotic — natives of 
distant parts and climes — coming from 
various atmospheric conditions, and from 
all kinds of soil. We bring them into our 
garden and grow them all under one cli- 
matic influence and in the one kind of soil 
we happen to possess. Certainly we cannot 
expect uniform success with all of them. 
You might as well bring into one room 
unlettered natives of distant climes and 
expect them all to enter into a general 
conversation. Even in gardens quite near 
each other, their permanence varies. I 
cannot grow, successfully, any of the bol- 
tonias, while within a quarter of a mile of 
me, in a friend's garden, they grow like 
weeds. Our soil is the same, and one would 
suppose that the climatic conditions were, 
still the fact remains. I merely mention 
this so that any novice finding that he 
cannot grow some plants as well as others 
near him, may not feel lonesome in his 
grief. It is, however, a good plan, when 



6 Introduction 

a plant supposedly easy to grow, fails to 
materialize, to try it in another part of 
your own garden, and if it does not do well 
there, discard and forget it — ^^the world is 
full of good things. 

Due to the fact of the perennial's habit 
of annual recurrence the cultural direc- 
tions are different from the flowers of but 
a season's bloom. There are some vital 
fundamentals that every gardener should 
know and some short cuts to success that 
every one may know. Since perennials, 
then, form the very kernel of the garden 
these are things of first importance in the 
growing of flowers and will be here elab- 
orated sufficiently to give the reader an 
impetus that will carry him at a bound 
into the inner circle of the garden mys- 
teries. 



Making a Garden of Perennials 

PREPARING THE BEDS 

DO we want a successful flower bed — 
one that our neighbors will envy — ■ 
or one in which the plants are struggling 
to exist ? If we want the former — and who 
does not? — ^we must give our plants good 
pasturage. They are as fond of the fat 
of the land as we are, and, since they 
gladden our hearts with their radiant 
blooms, we should treat them fairly. And 
how? By giving them a good, deep soil 
for their root-run, not only rich in food, 
but loose and friable. 

Most all virgin soils contain ample plant 
food, but the deeper part lacks the result 
of the action of air, sun and frost, and 
the natural humus of decayed leaves and 
grasses. The plant food it contains is 

7 



8 Making a Garden of Perennials 

" uncooked " — that is, not ready for plant 
assimilation. Therefore, the beds to con- 
tain your perennials should be dug at least 
two feet deep — three is better — and good 
garden soil, or soil from a corn-field or 
any hoed crop where the weeds have been 
kept down, used to supplement all but the 
top layer one foot in depth. All of this 
applies to tree and shrub holes also. This 
top layer of one foot in depth is apt to 
be in fair condition for immediate use and 
may be applied in the bottom of the bed, 
mixed with either fresh or rotted manure. 
The soil brought in may be mixed with old 
manure and placed on top. 

A word about " old manure " is oppor- 
tune here. Any manure that has been 
piled up for a year or more in a weed- 
infested corner and used on your grounds, 
especially on your lawn, is the best pro- 
moter of exercise I know of, and can keep 
you busy all summer dislodging the weeds 
that spring from the seed its bosom pro- 
tected. 



Preparing the Beds 9 

Of course, in a few sections where the 
soil is three feet deep — as I am told it is 
in the Illinois com belt — all that is needed 
is to loosen up the soil to the depth men- 
tioned, and add old manure. If the re- 
moval and bringing in of so much new 
soil is too harsh on the pocketbook we must 
proceed in a more economical way. If the 
soil is clayey in texture, mix with it sifted 
coal ashes or sand, and the coarser part of 
the ashes may be incorporated with the soil 
in the lower foot of bed. Remove the top 
one-foot layer, and set it aside ; throw out 
the bottom soil to the remaining depth. 
Break it up finely and, in replacing it, 
besides the coal ashes or sand, add fresh 
strong manure, placing it in horizontal 
layers — say three inches of soil, and then 
a layer of manure four inches thick, when 
gently tamped down; or make the layers 
slantingly — say at an angle of about 
forty-five degrees. This will add humus 
to the soil, and allow air and moisture to 
penetrate it. Then put in the original 



lo Making a Garden of Perennials 

top layer, mixing it with old manure. No 
fresh manure should touch the root of a 
plant. The fresh manure at the bottom 
of the bed will be well rotted by the time 
the roots reach it. After the top layer is 
put on you will find the bed raised up six to 
eight inches above the lawn, which is all 
right ; it will settle enough in time. At all 
times break up the soil into fine particles, 
otherwise a lump of clay will remain a 
lump, and is of little value for plant use. 

In making beds or shrub holes close to 
buildings having a cellar, one generally 
has to remove entirely all the soil, as that 
present usually consists of the deeper soil 
from the cellar excavation, mixed with 
bricks and mortar — few flowers root well 
in brick. 

Place your flower beds along the walks, 
at the house, or along the lot lines, but 
do not clutter the center of your lawn 
with them. An open grass plot adds ap- 
parent size and dignity to any place. Give 
as much open sunlight as possible. Only 



Preparing the Beds ii 

early spring bloomers, like the hepaticas 
and trilliums, grow in what we call shade 
— though at the time of their growth and 
bloom they have the sunlight through the 
leafless tree branches. Do not make a bed 
where the drainage is bad or where water 
will stand in it during the winter. Tile 
draining will improve the bed under almost 
any circumstances. 

Keep away from large trees. A vigor- 
ous elm, and a perennial cannot eat and 
drink out of the same dish and both grow 
fat. The perennial will be the one to 
suff*er, mostly from lack of moisture. If 
you have planted near a tree or lack of 
space compels you to do so, take a sharp 
spade and, each spring, cut deeply all 
along the edge of the flower bed nearest 
the tree, and pull out from the bed all the 
small roots you can without disturbing 
the plants. This will help it for a time, 
but the elm will invade the bed again and 
the operation must be repeated. This ap- 
plies to beds within eight or ten feet of a 



1 2 Making a Garden of Perennials 

tree. For any bed much nearer, the cut- 
ting would be apt to injure the tree, and 
the growth in the bed would be a poor one. 

Where the grounds are large and there 
is ample room for large beds at the bor- 
ders, with an open lawn in front, flowering 
shrubs may be used as a background for 
perennials, but the growth of the shrubs 
requires frequent removals of the peren- 
nials further forward, and a frequent re- 
newal of the plant food which the shrub 
is sharing. This method requires more 
watering on account of the double duty 
required of the soil. 

Avoid fancy or geometrical shapes. 
They belong, when allowable, to formal 
gardens where tender bedding plants are 
used. Along walks, rectangular beds may 
be made, but against buildings or bound- 
ary lines, while the rear line may be com- 
paratively straight, the front should be 
undulating, having long sweeping bays 
and promontories. No short curves should 
exist. They interfere with the lawn- 



Preparing the Beds 13 

mower. When it is desirable to face a 
boundary border with a walk, then, of 
course, the front line of a bed should be 
straight. 

Some perennials require to be planted 
two feet apart, and in some, like peonies, 
three feet is close enough, for in time their 
tops will meet. Eighteen inches apart is 
enough to allow for the majority and some 
slender ones require but one foot. All this 
should be taken into consideration when 
determining the width of the bed. 

Starting with the proposition that the 
average plant requires eighteen inches 
headroom, and that the first row may be 
planted six inches within the bed at the 
front — nine to twelve is better — and the 
second one back eighteen inches, and six 
from the back, we find that with rows two 
plants deep it requires a bed two feet and 
a half in width. This should be the nar- 
rowest allowance you should make. In a 
four-foot bed you can place them three 
deep, and one five and a half takes four 



14 Making a Garden of Perennials 

plants. In other words, you increase your 
width in jumps of eighteen inches at a 
time. While this is not actually necessary, 
it is best and applies only to the widest 
and narrowest points. The intervening 
curved lines will vary from this measure- 
ment but it makes no difference, because 
you do not plant in straight rows from 
back to front as one would cabbages. 

In planting at boundary lines or at 
buildings, the taller ones should be used 
at the back, but the semi-tall ones — say 
three feet in height — should occasionally 
be brought well toward the front in order 
to avoid stiffness and to add irregularity 
to the general effect. If a house or fence 
is at the back, flowering vines like the 
Clematis paniculata^ or C. fiammulay or 
any annual flowering vine, may be used 
here and there. In detached beds which 
may be seen from all sides, the taller plants 
are set in the middle. 

The effect is much better if you plant in 
groups of four, six, or more of one kind. 



Preparing the Beds 15 

It relieves the effect of spottiness. Plant in 
an irregular manner so as to avoid stiffness 
or lumpiness, and let one group run in be- 
hind another. If you plant large groups 
in a pear-shaped form with the narrow 
stem end slightly curved and let the larger 
end of the adjoining pear-shaped group 
run up to the narrow stem of its neighbor, 
you will produce the effect I suggest. The 
plants you buy, being small, if planted as 
suggested will not occupy all the ground 
the first year. These spaces may be car- 
peted with annuals for a year or so, or 
planted with gladioli, lilies or Hyacinth 
candicans. 

I will not attempt to discuss the fighting 
and clashing of colors sometimes seen in 
plantings. The acknowledged head of the 
house — she who is probably the one who 
desires the flower border — is generally an 
authority on pleasing color combinations. 

Securely staking tall-growing plants is 
necessary if one desires neatness and ef- 
fectiveness in the garden. We care for 



1 6 Making a Garden of Perennials 

a plant twelve months in the year for the 
benefit we derive from its short season of 
bloom, and to allow it, then, to be sprawled 
upon the ground by passing storms seems 
cruel. Broom handles and ash rods, half 
an inch in diameter, used by basket makers, 
may be obtained from dealers in broom 
material. Bamboo canes are useful, as 
well as the painted stakes sold by seed 
houses. The stakes should be forced well 
down into the soil. Often, in dry weather 
when the ground is hard, they are not 
driven down far enough and the first hard 
rain softens the soil around them, and, if 
a strong wind exists, the plant may topple 
over and carry the stake with it. In tying 
them don't hug them as you would a long- 
lost brother; give them some natural free- 
dom. In large groups, place the stakes 
around them, three or four feet apart, 
and string from stake to stake, running 
cross strings through the plants or be- 
tween them. A single large plant gen- 
erally requires at least three stakes. Do 



Preparing the Beds 17 

it before they are broken down by storms, 
for once broken it is hard to make a good 
job of it, especially if left down for some 
time. Then the growing ends turn up for 
light and harden in that bent condition. 

If you raise the perennials yourself it 
is best to grow them one year in a re- 
serve bed, say in the vegetable garden, be- 
cause but very few will bloom the first 
year from seed. Purchased plants should 
have blossoms the first year, as they are 
supposed to be one-year-old seedlings or 
are divisions of old plants. These may 
be set out in the first position upon ar- 
rival. Seedlings in the reserve bed may 
be planted in rows, each row a foot apart, 
and the plants six inches apart in the 
rows ; thus planted, they take up but Httle 
room and in the early fall or next spring 
they may be removed to their permanent 
quarters. 

In transplanting, be sure to expose the 
roots as little as possible to the sun or 
drying winds. When plants arrive with 



1 8 Making a Garden of Perennials 

the started foliage looking wilted, sprinkle 
them overhead and set them in a shady 
sheltered position for a while — say an hour. 
This will generally revive them enough 
to go on with your planting. If you have 
reason to suppose the plants were frosted 
in transit, set the box in a cool cellar over 
night. A gradual thawing out may re- 
juvenate them, while a sudden thawing is 
dangerous. 

In planting, it often helps an amateur 
to take a few stakes and place one at each 
point he desires to set a plant. If you 
set six or more stakes, plant six or more 
plants, pulling up the stakes as you pro- 
ceed to set out more. Make the holes in 
the bed wide enough to allow the roots to 
go in without crowding, and after filling 
in the soil, press it down firmly around the 
neck of the plant, and over the roots, and 
water well when all the bed is planted. 

When dry, hot weather comes, and you 
think artificial watering necessary, soak 
the bed well and then let it alone for some 



Preparing the Beds 19 

time, although, in the evening, after a hot 
sunny day accompanied by a strong, dry- 
ing wind, if the foliage looks wilted some- 
what, a showering overhead is beneficial. 
The day after a good soaking it is well to 
go lightly over the bed with a hoe or rake 
and stir up the soil, breaking the crust 
produced by the watering. This makes a 
mulch that will conserve the moisture and 
protect the roots from the hot sun. Fre- 
quent slight waterings keep the moisture at 
the top and the roots are then inclined to 
grow upwards to meet it. If you then 
neglect to water, the soil soon becomes dry 
and the roots suffer. 



WINTER MULCHING 

WHEN winter approaches, if you de- 
sire tidiness, cut the tops down 
(except evergreen-foliaged plants) even 
if the frost has not already done this 
work for you, and cover the bed with 
well-rotted manure, but it is really better 
to allow the tops to remain all winter, 
especially in the case of hollow-stemmed 
plants. Well-decayed manure needs but 
little going over in the spring, requir- 
ing only the removal of the foreign 
material and the straw chaff it may con- 
tain. What remains is generally the color 
of the soil, thus unnoticeable and acts as 
a mulch during the summer. Fresh 
manure may be used — in fact it is better, 
because the plants receive the benefit of 
the leachings, which is pretty well spent 
in old manure. In large grounds there is, 
however, considerable labor attached to the 

20 



Winter Mulching 21 

removal of this fertilizer in the spring, as 
it must be taken away for neatness' sake. 
While this manure has the greater part of 
its strength leached out, it is well worth 
saving for the humus still in it, and it 
may be dug in in the vegetable garden, or 
placed in a large flat pile about two feet 
high while still loosely spread. Melons, 
squash, pumpkins or similar sprawling 
vines may be grown in it. For each plant 
dump about one-half a wheelbarrow of 
good soil on the top, level and sow in it, 
or set out plants, if the seedlings are 
started elsewhere. The roots of these 
plants like the loose run the open manure 
allows. In extreme dry weather the grow- 
ing squash or pumpkins should be well wa- 
tered. In the fall this manure has become 
fine in texture and makes a splendid win- 
ter's mulch for snowdrops, crocus, etc. 

Do not be in a hurry about removing the 
winter's covering when the first warm days 
of spring appear. More damage is done 
in early spring than in settled cold weather. 



22 Making a Garden of Perennials 

It is the alternate freezing and thawing 
that does the most damage, and the surface 
water lying over the crowns of plants, 
which the frozen ground underneath does 
not allow to go down. I have seen roots of 
shallow-rooted plants, Lobelia cardinalis 
for instance, growing in clayey soil, lying 
on the surface of the ground in spring — 
pried out by soil expansion. Part of the 
covering may be removed quite early but 
enough should remain to shade the ground. 



SUMMER MULCHING 

OHALLOW-ROOTED plants like the 
^^ cardinal flower {Lobelia cardinalis) 
and the tall, fall-flowering hardy phloxes, 
dislike the hot sun beating down on their 
roots. Being surface rooters, and at the 
same time fond of moisture, they suff^er 
when the surface soil is dried out. They 
should have a summer mulch to intercept 
the radiation of moisture from the soil. 

The spent manure I mentioned as fine 
for covering bulbs, is splendid for this pur- 
pose and as it is of the same color as the 
soil, its presence is hardly noticeable; be- 
sides it adds humus. Almost any open 
material may be used, that will not off*end 
our ideas of tidiness in appearance. Grass 
clippings from the lawn-mower may be 
used. 

Some plants are late in appearing above 

ground in the spring, Platycodons for 

23 



24 Making a Garden of Perennials 

instance, and there is danger of their 
being dug up by impatient amateurs 
who have either forgotten their pres- 
ence or imagined they were dead and the 
ground vacant. It is well, therefore, to 
place in the fall some cane stakes at each 
plant or in a row around a group of this 
class to indicate their presence. I also 
place stakes at each lily as they generally 
occupy open spaces between perennials, 
and I seldom wish to disturb them if it 
becomes necessary to remove one of the 
perennials. 

With few exceptions — peonies and the 
gas plant, for instance^ — perennials need 
dividing and resetting every two or three 
years, which should be done in the early 
fall or early spring, but never when the 
soil is very wet, because in the subsequent 
manipulation of the soil to replenishing its 
food supply, it should be dry enough to 
break up into fine particles. The Japa- 
nese anemone should be replanted only in 
the spring. It is in bloom and in active 



Summer Mulching 25 

life in the fall. The best way to proceed 
is to work one section at a time — say a 
ten-foot strip. Cut back the foliage, take 
up the plants and lay them aside, covering 
with burlap or some material to keep the 
sun and wind from their roots. Then dig 
the bed up, deeply, and add some well- 
rotted manure, rake smoothly and replant. 
While it is probably best not to set the 
same plants back in the same position oc- 
cupied before, it may be done, for if the 
soil has been well worked up it is apt to 
have changed its position. Then take up 
another section and do the same. In the 
meantime all large roots are divided. 
Some may be pulled apart, but more often 
they have to be cut through with a sharp 
spade or a butcher knife. Discard all evi- 
dence of decay and use only the healthy 
outer rim, possessing well-developed roots. 
They generally show the stalk buds for 
next year's growth. Three to five of these 
buds will make a good plant. Sometimes, 
in the case, perhaps, of a cherished but 



26 Making a Garden of Perennials 

not over-robust larkspur, you find part 
of the original root decayed, but if it has 
a few good roots attached to it, dust pow- 
dered sulphur on the decayed part — ^it 
often checks decay — and you may eventu- 
ally restore your pet to a healthy con- 
dition. 

If you want a delightful recreation and 
lots of fun, and would like to possess some 
plant producing a flower entirely new in 
color or form, and, certainly in your esti- 
mation finer than any your rival neigh- 
bors have ever seen, make a reserve bed in 
some sunny spot and raise hybrid delphini- 
ums. In fact any one possessing a good 
collection of perennials should have a re- 
serve plantation to draw from in order to 
fill up gaps that will be found in the main 
bed after any hard winter. It is especially 
useful for keeping up a stock of that 
charming but short-lived perennial, the 
columbine (Aquilegia), which seldom can 
be depended upon after the second year. I 
am speaking of the finer forms. 



Summer Mulching 27 

These hybrid delphiniums, or garden 
larkspur, possess the blood of two or more 
species and as a result are inclined to 
" sport," producing flowers of various 
forms and colors, entirely different from 
those of the parents. The word " sport " 
as used by gardeners is applied to any 
plant that displays a marked contrast in 
foliage, flower, form or habit of growth, 
from the type or normal aspect of the 
original species. The well-known golden 
glow is a good example, being a double 
form of the single-flowered Rudbeckia 
lacirdata^ a tall member of the Black-eyed 
Susan family, and known as one of the 
coneflowers. The flower head of the type 
is composed of two parts — the outer row 
of yellow " ray florets," which is not a 
part of the flower proper, except that it 
might be likened to the fringe that borders 
a curtain, and the dark brown cone in the 
center, which is composed of numerous mi- 
nute, individual flowers like the dandelion, 
each perfect and capable of producing 



28 Making a Garden of Perennials 

seed. Nature is slyly freakish at times, 
and in this instance she changed the in- 
dividual flowers into ray florets. Fortu- 
nately some observing flower lover saw this 
one original plant, for undoubtedly the 
freak occurred in one plant only, and 
transplanting it to his garden, eventually 
gave to the floral world the now common 
golden glow. If not noticed by some one, 
the plant would have lived its allotted 
term and died unknown to the world, for 
it produces no seed. 

The delphinium sports into various 
forms of flower, color and shape — the 
tones of color being a mingling of blues, 
pinks and mauve, some in the most lovely 
combinations imaginable. They will all 
bloom the first year from seed if sown in 
February or March in a greenhouse or hot- 
bed, but will not all bloom at once, so that 
for at least a period of one month, new 
blooms are opening each day. One's main 
pleasure is in expectancy. You are al- 
ways looking and hoping for something 



Summer Mulching 29 

better, and you generally get it. It is 
best, when a plant does not produce a 
flower up to grade, to dig it up and dis- 
card it, but those that are good should be 
marked in some manner to identify them. 
A label placed at their side will do, but the 
better way is to get some small sheet-lead 
tags, bearing stamped-in numbers or let- 
ters. Attach to wire pegs ten inches long 
and force down near the plant, recording 
its number in your " Garden Book " with 
a description of the flower. This enables 
you at any planting time — spring is the 
best for delphiniums — to plant in groups 
of light blues, dark blues, etc. You may 
be undecided sometimes as to whether you 
consider a plant good enough to keep or 
not. In this case keep it, but mark it a 
" hold-over." Some plants do better the 
second season. They may be sown out- 
doors in May, but will hardly bloom the 
same year. 



PLANT COMBINATIONS 

MANY combinations may be used 
whereby a certain area may be made 
to produce a double crop of bloom, and 
thus prolong the flowering season within 
that area. Peonies, which are planted two 
and a half to three feet apart, may have 
the Lilium superbum, the later varieties of 
gladiolus, or Hyacinth candicans planted 
in between them; the last two should be 
taken up each fall as they are not hardy 
in all sections. The lilies will require re- 
setting every few years, as they travel 
around in their new growth, and may in- 
vade the peony roots. These will flower 
above the peony foliage. Fall is the best 
time to plant any lily. 

The shooting star (Dodecatheon media) 
may be planted between the spreading 
dwarf plants of that admirable bell flower 

30 




There are interesting combinations of flowers 
not only for succession of bloom but for sim- 
ultaneous bloom, as Canterbury bells {Campanula 
medium) and foxglove {Digitalis) 



Plant Combinations 31 

(Campanula Carpatica). The bell flow- 
ers may be planted eighteen inches apart 
and, in the spring, when the shooting stars 
are up and in bloom, the foliage of the 
campanula is hardly in evidence, but dur- 
ing the summer it occupies all the space 
between them. 

After flowering, all that part of the 
shooting star above ground turns brown, 
dies back and disappears to return again 
next spring. 

The Virginia bluebell (Mertensia Vir- 
ginica) is another charming plant of the 
same habit, and as it is worthy of cultiva- 
tion in groups, it often becomes a question 
where to place it so that the bare ground 
it leaves behind is not an eye-sore. Besides 
colonies I have established in my ravine, 
where the overhanging underbrush hides 
its absence later on, I grow it under large 
bushes of forsythia. Both bloom at the 
same time and the pink buds and open 
blue bells of the Mertensia, when seen 
through the fleecy mass of the golden bells 



32 Making a Garden of Perennials 

of the forsjthia, make a charming picture. 
After flowering, the forsythia hides the 
disrobing Mertensia with its heavy sheet 
of f ohage. 

Some perennials — the bleeding heart and 
the perennial poppy — have ragged foliage 
after blooming and require some tall bushy 
plant to be placed in front and around 
them to hide their shabbiness. Strong- 
growing perennials, asters or the biennial 
Rudbeckia triloba, are good for this pur- 
pose. 

Some instances occur where a low hedge 
of perennials might look well, for instance 
in a small yard where all the lines are 
formal and a straight walk leads from gate 
to house. A floral hedge might be placed 
at each side of the walk by making beds 
eighteen inches to two feet wide and deep. 
The best perennial hardy plant I know for 
this purpose is the gas plant (Dictamnus 
fraxinella), which, when once established, 
remains a joy, almost forever. Some peo- 
ple are still enjoying the blooms of plants 



Plant Combinations 33 

set out by their great-grandmothers. This 
plant is slow in increasing its size, but a 
row planted twelve inches apart will in 
time make a compact hedge with a dark 
green, lustrous foliage, over two feet tall 
and fully as broad. The flower spikes are 
borne well above the foliage, some pink, 
deeply veined a darker hue, and some white. 
A mixture of the colors is desirable. On 
account of the slow habit of its increase, 
the bed will look scantily furnished for a 
few years. This can be remedied by grow- 
ing at each side of the row of plants any 
spring-flowering bulb, or by carpeting in 
summer with sweet alyssum, sowing seeds 
in the bed. Any low-growing annual will 
do, but it must be low-growing or it may 
injure the Fraxinella. 



WEEDING 

PARADOXICAL as it may seem, the 
weed is the best friend the farmer has 
because it compels him to cultivate his land 
in order to exterminate the intruder. Cul- 
tivation keeps the soil open to air and 
moisture and conserves the latter. It is 
best, therefore, to go over lightly with a 
hoe the day after a heavy rain or a good 
watering. 

The time to weed is before you see the 
weeds, but if they do appear, don't run 
away from them. When none are in sight, 
the chances are that upon microscopic ex- 
amination, a velvety fuzz of green would 
be discovered. These are minute weed 
seedlings, but yet slightly rooted, and 
easily treated by simple dislodgment. A 
hot, windy day is a good time to hoe be- 
tween your plants, because the wind and 

34 



Weeding 35 

sun kill the uprooted weeds in a short time. 
They dry up, and there is but little to re- 
move. On a damp cloudy day if a dis- 
turbed bit — no matter how small — of the 
pestiferous couch grass rolls near the base 
of a plant and remains there, it will send 
down its roots among those of the plant, 
and it is almost impossible to get them out 
without taking the plant up. 



LISTS OF DEPENDABLE PEREN- 
NIALS 

IT Is useless to attempt to name and de- 
scribe all the good perennials that may 
be grown, but there are some that seem to 
do well in all sections and it may be well 
to call attention to some of them. 

AncJiusia Italic a — Italian Alknet 

One should grow the Dropmore variety, 
or possibly Perry's variety, a new form 
just introduced. I would not have in- 
cluded this plant in the list, because it 
does not winter well and a stock of seed- 
ling plants should be grown each year and 
wintered in a coldframe, did it not present 
such an airy, open-headed plant covered 
with its gentian-blue flowers for a long 
time. A good blue is a rare color in the 
garden. A group of these should be 

36 



Lists of Dependable Perennials 37 

planted about two and a half feet apart 
and at the rear, as they grow five to six 
feet in height. 

Asters (hardy) 

The so-called aster, grown by florists, 
and in general gardens, is not a true aster, 
but is known botanically as Callistephus 
Chinensisy introduced from China in 1731, 
and is a hardy annual. Why it received 
the common name of aster I have never 
been able to find out. The true aster is 
named from its star shape, and in Eng- 
land is much prized and is called the 
Michaelmas Daisy, because they are in full 
bloom at the time of the feast of St. 
Michael. As they grow wild nearly every- 
where in the States, they are not grown so 
much in gardens here. All good cata- 
logues list quite a number of good varieties 
for one to choose from. Being tall they 
should be planted at the rear. 

Aconitum — Monk's-hood, Helmet Flower 
This plant, the roots of which are poi- 



38 Making a Garden of Perennials 

sonous, should not be grown where children 
are apt to get at its roots, and when trans- 
planted care should be taken not to allow 
any of its small, beet-like tubers to lie 
around, the surplus being burned. They 
grow about four feet high, blooming in 
the latter part of summer. A. autumnale 
and A. Napellus are among the best. 

Anemones — Wind Flower 

Anemone Pennsylvanica is a native, 
growing a little over a foot in height, pro- 
ducing in profusion fairly large white flow- 
ers in July and August. Having a 
" woodsy " look, it seems at home in semi- 
shaded positions, where it does well, but 
will thrive in full sun. The king of the 
tribe, however, is the Japanese variety. A, 
Japonica, especially the variety Alba, with 
large, showy, pure white flowers, blooming 
late in the fall, often after the first slight 
frost, and at a time when all others are 
gone. For this reason they should be 
planted where they may be seen from some 




One of the brightest stars of the garden in late 
fall is the Japanese anemone 



Lists of Dependable Perennials 39 

house window, and thus be enjoyed when it 
is too chilly to be out-of-doors. If planted 
eighteen inches apart, cup and saucer Can- 
terbury bells may be planted in be- 
tween them and removed when through 
blooming. The anemones do not require 
the room before that. 

Arabis Alpina — Rock Cress 

Rock cress is an early spring, white- 
flowering plant. Its low-growing habit 
makes it suitable for edging. In the fall 
plant Chionodoxa Lucilice in between them. 
This is a blue-flowering bulb, hardy, cheap 
and in flower at the same time the rock 
cress is. 

A quilegia — Columbina*^ 

These have been mentioned in connection 
with the article on reserve beds. The 
Rocky Mountain columbine (A, ccerulea), 
a bright blue form, is probably the hand- 
somest one of the family, but it seldom 
lasts long. The golden columbine (A. 



40 Making a Garden of Perennials 

chrysantha) seems to be the sturdiest of 
the group and lasts several years. It be- 
longs to the long-spurred class, all of 
which are good. 

Bocconia cordata — Plume Poppy 

The plume poppy is a stately plant, at- 
taining a height of seven to eight feet, 
bearing in July and August terminal pani- 
cles of creamy white flowers having large, 
indented glaucous foliage. It has one 
fault, however; it spreads rapidly and 
soon takes possession of the whole bed, 
and therefore should be in an individual 
hole of its own. The plantings are some- 
times made in large bottomless tubs, sunk 
in the ground. 

Campanula — Bell Flower 

Nearly all of this family, as well as the 
allied Platycodons, are good. They are 
slender, upright growers, as a rule, but 
C Carpatica, already mentioned in the 
text, grows but eight inches tall. The 



Lists of Dependable Perennials 41 

species macrantha persicifolia^ rotundi- 
folia (Blue Bells of Scotland) and Tra- 
cJielium, are the most reliable among the 
group. The cup-and-saucer, and the 
chimney bell flower, are biennials, bloom- 
ing but once, and have to be wintered the 
year prior in a coldframe. 

Centaureas — Hard-heads 

Like an open sunny position. C. ma- 
crocephala is the best, bearing thistle-like 
golden yellow flowers. 

Coreopsis 

The species lanceolata, and C. grandi- 
floray have rich golden flowers of pleasing 
form, splendid for cutting. They grow 
about two feet high and bloom all summer 
if not allowed to go to seed, but seldom 
last over the third year. 

Delphiniums 

Have already been discussed. All the 
named varieties are good, especially Bel- 
ladonna. See page 26. 



42 Making a Garden of Perennials 

Dictamnus — Gas Plant 

Fully described on page 32. 

Digitalis — ^Foxglove 

The form usually grown is treated as a 
biennial, and with me, must be coldf ramed 
the first year. Ambigua or grandiflora is 
a perennial having pleasing pale yellow 
flowers, and is a comparatively long-lived 
plant. 

Echinops — Globe Thistle 

This is a tall, interesting plant with 
foliage somewhat like a thistle. E. Ritro 
is the best. Its peculiar flower head con- 
sists of a ball about an inch and a half 
in diameter, from which spring, in close 
array all over the ball, minute flowers of 
a deep metallic blue. 

Eryngium — Sea Holly 

A plant somewhat similar in appearance 
to the Echinops, but smaller in all its 



Lists of Dependable Perennials 43 

parts. E. ametJiystinum is the best, hav- 
ing small globular flower heads of an 
amethystine blue color, this color also ex- 
tending quite a way down the flower stems. 

Eupatorium — Thoroughwort 

Two forms are in the market — E. agera- 
toides, bearing numerous small white flow- 
ers in late summer, and E, codestinmn, 
with light blue flowers similar to the 
ageratum. Both are good. 

Funkia — Plantain Lily — Broad-leaf Day 
Lily 

I consider F. subcordata grandiflora the 
best of this group. In time a single plant, 
if not crowded, will make a mound of green 
foliage, looking as if an inverted bushel 
basket were shingled with broad overlap- 
ping foliage, above which, in August, 
spring pure white, sweet-scented lily-like 
flowers. It will stand partial shade. If 
planted in groups they should be placed 



44 Making a Garden of Perennials 

two and a half to three feet apart. Tulips 
may be planted between them. 



Gaillardia — ^Blanket Flower 

The perennial forms produce much 
handsomer flowers than do the annuals. 
All of our garden perennial forms, includ- 
ing grandiflora, are varieties of G. uris- 
tata, and, being natives of Texas, are 
not always hardy in the Northern States. 
— See page 4 in the text. It is a rather 
sprawling plant, growing naturally some 
two feet high, and hard to stake, but may 
be pegged down. Use common long hair- 
pins. It requires an open situation in 
full sun, and thrives best in a sandy soil, 
well drained. 

Geum — ^Avens 

Quite a hardy border plant, rather low 
in its foliage, but throwing its flower stems 
up fully eighteen inches, blooming more or 
less all summer. G. coccineum, with scar- 



Lists of Dependable Perennials 45 

let flowers, and G. HedericM, are both 
good. 

Hesperis matronalis — ^Rocket 

An admirable plant for use where most 
other plants would fail. It does fairly 
well in semi-shady places, at base of shrubs 
and in between them in open spots. Plants 
grow three to four feet tall, of bushy 
form when treated well, bearing pinkish 
flowers in June and July. There is a white 
form. 

Hemerocalis — ^Yellow Day Lily 

All are good, strong growers with nar- 
row iris-like foliage, producing flowers in 
tones of yellow. H. flava, the sweet- 
scented, deep lemon-yellow-flowered form, 
is the best and must not be confounded 
with the coarser-flowered H. fulva, the 
tawny day Hly. 

Hibiscus — Mallow 

All the mallows are good, from the 
" crimson eye " to the new mallow mar- 



46 Making a Garden of Perennials 

vels, moderately late, upright-growing 
and hardy. The colors run from pure 
white to pinks and reds. 

Inula ensifolia 

A low-growing very hardy plant bear- 
ing freely yellow daisy-like flowers, always 
presenting a neat appearance. 

Hollyhocks 

On account of the prevailing hollyhock 
disease — a disease of the foliage hard to 
combat — it is best to grow one-year-old 
plants, as they are less affected than the 
older ones. The singles are the most 
charming. 

Iris — Fleur-de-lis 

This is a large group, from the bulbous 
Spanish and English iris, which bloom in 
June and then die down to reappear next 
season, and may therefore be planted in 
open spaces between other plants, to the 









- ^ 




HHHI^^^^^Hv*^ ^'H 


w^ 


je^^ 





The tall-growing hardy phlox [Thtox panicuUta) 
is a garden mainstay through August, Septem- 
ber and October. Beware of the 
colorings 



magenta 



Lists of Dependable Perennials 47 

magnificent Japanese iris, 7. Kcempferi, 
This latter one is somewhat fickle and does 
not last long. The best for general plant- 
ing are the German, cristata, pumilla and 
Sibirica varieties. Pallida Dalmatica is 
exceedingly fine. 

Lysimachia cletJiroides — Loose-strife 
An excellent plant in damp soils. 

Pceonia — Peony 

Every one should have them, including 
the early-flowering red P. officinalisy and 
the later ones. Try a few tree peonies — P. 
Moutan. They are grafted on the ordi- 
nary form, so destroy all suckers that 
come from below the union. 

Phlox 

The tall-growing hardy phlox should be 
in all gardens. It is permanent if taken 
up every three years and divided. Strong 
" cutting " plants give > the finest blooms. 
Avoid magenta colors. The new salmon- 



48 Making a Garden of Perennials 

pink Elizabeth Campbell is fine; on light 
soils, well drained, the creeping forms are 
desirable. 



Pjrethrum 

The hybrids of P. roseum have hand- 
some, daisy-like flowers in white and vari- 
ous shades of pink, up to red, in single 
and semi-double forms, but they seldom 
live long. A raised bed suits them best. 
P. idiginosum, the giant white daisy, is 
fine in damp situations. 

RudbecMa 

This genus includes the well-known 
golden glow and R, nitida var. Autumn 
Sun, growing five feet high. It bears at- 
tractive primrose yellow flowers. The 
giant purple coneflower, often classed as 
a rudbeckia, is really an Echinacea, grow- 
ing three or more feet tall, bearing reddish 
purple flowers and is very attractive in 
groups bordering a woods or shrubbery 



Lists of Dependable Perennials 49 

belt, presenting a rustic aspect and re- 
maining a long time in bloom. 

ThaUctrwm — Meadow Rue 

The white form of T. aquilegifolium is 
a very handsome plant, doing fairly well 
in open shade, flowering in fluffy masses 
of white. 

Veronica — Speedwell 

These are all good, but V, longifoUa 
subsessilis is by far the finest of the taller 
growers, reaching a height of three feet, 
and bearing long slender spikes of deep 
blue flowers. 



SOME OF THE BEST PI.ANTS FOR SHADY 
POSITIONS 

Aconitum — Monk's-hood 

ActcBa spicata — Baneberry 

Amsonia 

Anemone Pennsylvanica — Wind Flower 

Convallaria — Lily-of -the- valley , 



50 Making a Garden of Perennials 

Dielytra — Bleeding-heart 

Ferns 

Funkia — Plantain Lily 

Hepaticas — Liver Leaf 

Thalictrum — Meadow Rue 

Trillium — ^Wake Robin 

Mertensia Virginica — Virginia Blue Bells 



FOB. DRY SOILS 

Asclepias tuherosa — ^Butterfly Weed 
Aquilegia Canadensis — Canadian Colum- 
bine 
Aquilegia alpina — Alpine Columbine 
Gypsophila paniculata — Baby's Breath 
Gaillardia — Blanket Flower 
Geranium sanguineum — Cranes-bill 
Helianthus multiflorus, fl. pi. — Double 

Mexican Sunflower 
Inula grandiflora — Flea Bane 
Inula ensifolia 
Sawifraga crassifolia 
Sedums — Stonecrop 
Tunica saxifraga 



Lists of Dependable Perennials 51 

POR WET SOILS 

Hibiscus Moscheutos — Swamp Mallow, 

and all Mallows 
Iris pseudacorus 

" Sibirica — Siberian Iris 

" laevigata — Japanese Iris 

" prismatica 
Lilium superbwm — Turk's-cap Lily 
Lobelia cardinalis — Cardinal Flower 
Monarda — Bergamot — in variety, Rose 
Lythrum Salicaria — Loose-strife 
Lysimachia clethroides — Loose-strife 
Polygonum cuspidatum — Giant Knot-weed 
Spiraea — dwarf herbaceous form in variety 



ALPINES, OR ROCK PLANTS 

Achillea tomontosa — ^Wooly Yarrow 
Arabis albida — ^Rock Cress 
Campanula Carpatica — Carpathian Hare- 
bell 
Coronilla varia — Crown Vetch 
Geum coccineum — ^Avens 



52 Making a Garden of Perennials 

Gypsophila repens — Baby's Breath 

Inula ensifolia — Flea Bane 

Phlox amcena, in variety — Creeping Phlox 

Sedum, in variety — Stonecrop 

Tunica sawifraga 

Veronica circceoides — Speedwell 

Yucca filamentosa — Adam's Needle 



JUL 9 1912 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




ODo^baavtst 



